Elara's POV

The silver blade sliced through the skin just above my collarbone.

"You thought the bond would keep me chained to your grave, Leo," I said, staring at the man thrashing weakly on the hospital bed.

Blood welled instantly, hot and thick. I gripped the cold metal hilt with my right hand and dragged it downward, severing the intricate crescent-moon scar.

Leo’s eyes rolled back. A gurgling sound escaped his throat, followed by a violent cough.

Black sludge splattered across the white sheets.

"Look at you," I told him, my voice steady. "The great Alpha, choking on his own rot."

He tried to lift his hand, his fingers clawing at the empty air toward me.

"Save your strength," I advised. "You'll need it."

His lips parted, revealing teeth stained dark with poisoned blood. He wanted to issue an Alpha command. I saw the instinct burning in his fading eyes.

"Command me to heal you," I challenged, stepping closer to the rail of the bed. "Command me to share my life force."

He choked again, unable to form the words.

"You can't," I answered for him. "Because I just cut the tether."

The heart monitor emitted a piercing, continuous screech. A flatline.

I didn't reach for a towel. I didn't wipe the blood pooling in the hollow of my throat. Instead, I leaned over the mattress. The hospital’s critical condition notice lay near his pillow, now soaked with the dark fluid he had just expelled from his lungs.

I picked up the paper.

"This is the only inheritance I want from you," I whispered.

I folded the damp edges together, pressing the crease hard, and shoved the ruined document deep into my jacket pocket.

I turned my back on the dead man and walked to the exit. I wrapped my fingers around the handle and yanked the heavy door open.

"Code Blue! Room 412!" a voice shouted from the hallway.

A team of nurses rushed down the corridor, pushing a heavy metal crash cart directly toward me.

"Move!" a tall doctor yelled.

Beta Julian Mercer stood right behind them, his gaze darting from the flatlining machine to my bleeding neck. "What did you do?"

"He stopped breathing," I stated.

The doctor shoved past me to get into the room.

The physical toll of the severed mate bond hit me in that exact second. A violent spasm ripped through my vertebrae. My spine seized, arching entirely against my will.

My weakening legs gave out. My knees slammed against the metal doorframe with a sickening thud. Pain shot up my femurs, settling deep in my joints.

"You cut the mark!" Julian lunged forward, stopping just short of my crumpled form. "You crazy bitch, the shock will kill him faster!"

"The poison killed him, Julian," I replied, my voice raspy. "I just saved myself."

"You’re his Luna! You share his fate!" he roared.

"I was his collateral," I corrected. "There's a difference."

Sweat soaked my shirt collar, mixing with the red streaks still flowing from my wound.

My facial muscles remained completely locked. Rigid. No tears formed in my dry eyes. I had cried my last tear for Leo three years ago.

"Paddles! Charge to two hundred!" the doctor ordered from inside the room.

Julian stood over me, his fists clenched at his sides. "If he doesn't wake up, the pack will tear you to pieces, Elara."

"They can certainly try," I said.

"Hold her right there!" the doctor shouted over the deafening beep of the monitor. "She’s bleeding heavily! Did she attack the Alpha?"

"Check his throat!" a nurse yelled. "I need an airway!"

"I severed the tie," I called out, loud enough for the medical team to hear. "He's all yours."

The doctor halted with the defibrillator paddles in his hands, staring at me in horror. "You broke a true mate bond? Are you insane?"

"Clear!" another nurse screamed.

The machine thumped. Leo’s lifeless body jerked upward on the bed, then flopped back down.

Still a flatline.

Julian kicked the wall. "Call pack security! Do not let her leave this floor!"

"I’m not running, Julian," I said.

I placed my palms flat against the smooth corridor wall and dragged myself upright. My legs trembled under my weight, but I locked my knees.

"Grab her!" Julian ordered a passing orderly.

The orderly hesitated, eyeing the silver blade still gripped loosely in my left hand.

"I said grab her!" Julian bellowed.

"Touch me, and you lose your hands," I warned the orderly.

The young man backed away, raising his palms in surrender.

"Coward," Julian spat, pulling his phone from his pocket. "I'm calling the enforcers."

"Do that," I said. "Tell them their Alpha is dead."

"Charge to three hundred! Clear!" the doctor yelled again.

Another heavy thump echoed from the room. Another failure.

"He's gone," I told Julian. "You feel it too, don't you? The pack link is fraying."

Julian’s face paled. He pressed a hand to his chest, the realization hitting him. The Alpha’s presence was fading from the collective mind.

"You murdered him," Julian whispered, his anger shifting into raw panic.

"I survived him," I replied.

"You won't make it out of this hospital," Julian threatened, backing away to dial his phone. "The exits are guarded."

"I don't need the exits yet," I said.

I turned away from the doorway. The hallway stretched long and empty ahead of me, lit by harsh fluorescent bulbs.

"Where do you think you're going?" Julian demanded.

"To finish the paperwork," I answered.

I steadied my breathing. I lifted my right hand toward the red metal box mounted on the plaster.

My index finger, coated in my own wet blood, found the glass panel.

I pressed the fire alarm.

Elara's POV

The klaxon screamed, deafening in the narrow corridor.

"Get away from that box!" Julian roared from the far end of the hall.

I didn't answer. The ceiling panels hissed. Ice-cold water blasted downward. The sudden deluge soaked my hair, washing the fresh blood from my collarbone straight down into my shirt.

"Lock down the stairwells!" Julian shouted. He slapped his phone against his ear, his voice barely cutting through the mechanical wail. "Do not let her reach the lobby!"

I turned my back on him. I pushed my weight against the heavy fire doors. They groaned open, revealing the concrete stairs.

I stepped through. The door slammed shut behind me, muting Julian's frantic orders.

The stairs stretched below me, steep and gray.

My left leg dragged against the rough tread. The severed bond gnawed at my nerve endings. It felt like someone had wrapped barbed wire around my spine and pulled tight. My muscles turned to lead.

I gripped the cold iron railing. I forced my knee to bend. Step by step.

Down to the third floor.

The alarm blared here too. The sprinklers hammered the carpeted hallway. Water ran down my pale cheeks, stinging my eyes.

I limped toward the end of the hall. Room 301. The VIP suite.

I slammed my wet palm against the heavy oak door and shoved it inward.

"I told the nurses no visitors," Kael snapped, not turning around.

He had Selene pressed hard against the floral wallpaper. His hands gripped her waist. Her lipstick was smeared across her chin.

"It's a good thing I don't work here," I said. I stayed near the doorway, refusing to step further into the room.

Kael spun. He shoved Selene aside.

"Elara," Kael said, his voice hard. "What are you doing on this floor?"

"Delivering a message," I replied.

Selene peered out from behind him. She adjusted the strap of her silk camisole. "You look terrible, Elara. Is that blood?"

"Observant as always, Selene," I said.

Kael closed the distance between us, stopping a few feet away. "Julian said you were with Leo. Why aren't you in his room?"

"It got crowded," I told him. "Lots of doctors. Lots of machines."

"Did he wake up?" Kael demanded.

"He choked on black sludge," I answered.

"And you left him?" Kael's eyes narrowed. "You're his mate."

"Not anymore," I said.

Water dripped from my chin. I looked past Kael's broad shoulder. The analog clock on the wall read exactly two-fifteen.

My chest rose and fell. The breathing was flat. Mechanical.

"He flatlined at two-twelve," I stated.

Kael froze. "The Alpha is in stable condition. I spoke to the head surgeon ten minutes ago."

"Ten minutes is a long time," I said. "Poisons work fast."

"Poison?" Selene squeaked. She shrank behind Kael. "Who poisoned the Alpha?"

"Ask your boyfriend," I suggested, keeping my eyes on Kael.

Kael flinched. "Watch your mouth, Elara. You have no proof."

"I don't need proof," I said. "I'm not the pack executioner."

"You're coming back upstairs," Kael ordered. He reached for my arm. "You're going to fix this."

"Drop my arm," I warned.

I twisted my wrist, using the slick water to slip from his grasp. I stepped back, creating distance.

"Fix him!" Kael yelled.

"Dead men do not heal," I said.

I reached into my soaked jacket pocket. My fingers brushed the ruined critical condition notice. Then I found the heavy chain.

I pulled the bloody mass free.

I tossed the object onto the plush wool rug at his feet.

It landed with a wet, heavy thud.

Kael stared down.

A ragged chunk of my own skin rested on the white fibers. Entangled in the bloody tissue was the silver chain and the carved wolf tooth. The Alpha's mate necklace.

Selene shrieked. She pressed her hands over her eyes.

"What is this?" Kael asked.

Elara's POV

"Lower it faster," I told the two men standing in the pouring rain.

Three days after the hospital alarms faded, I stood at the edge of the public cemetery. The gravediggers grunted, their boots slipping in the sludge as they eased the undersized pine coffin into the narrow trench. The cheap ropes groaned under the weight, fraying against the rough wood.

I held a rusted shovel. Rain soaked my black coat, chilling the fresh bandages wrapped tightly around my neck. The wound throbbed with every heartbeat, a constant, sharp reminder of the severed bond.

"That's far enough," the older gravedigger muttered, pulling his rope free. "We ain't getting paid enough to drown out here."

"Just leave," I told him.

The men didn't argue. They grabbed their gear and hurried toward the cemetery gates, leaving me alone with the open grave.

I scooped up a mound of wet earth and hurled it downward. The mud slammed against the cheap wood with a hollow thud.

Tires screeched on the wet asphalt. A black SUV slammed on its brakes just outside the wrought-iron gates.

Kael marched through the puddles. He held a black umbrella over Selene, who clung tightly to his left arm. Her sheer silk blouse offered zero protection against the storm, sticking to her skin in translucent patches.

He reached the gravesite and kicked the spare shovel resting near my boots. The metal clattered violently against a neighboring stone marker.

"Stop digging," Kael ordered.

Mud splattered across my leather boots. I tightened my grip on the wooden handle. The rough grain dug into my skin. A splinter pierced my palm, sharp and grounding.

I didn't look up. I drove the metal spade into the pile of dirt, lifted another heavy scoop, and dumped it into the hole.

"I said stop," Kael yelled, his voice cutting through the downpour.

"He belongs in the ground, Kael," I answered. "Unless you want to keep him on ice forever."

Selene wrinkled her nose, stepping carefully to avoid the mud. "You buried the Alpha in a public plot? In a pauper's box?"

"He died without a pack bond," I reminded her. I kept my eyes on the wet dirt filling the grave. "The elders refused him the sacred grounds. This is what he gets."

"Because of you!" Kael snapped. He dropped the umbrella, letting the rain wash over him.

Selene shrieked and covered her head with her designer purse. "Kael, my hair!"

"Because of the rot in his veins," I corrected. I swung the shovel again.

"You abandoned him on that bed," Kael argued. "You cut the tie. You left him to choke."

"I left a corpse," I stated. "He was dead the moment the poison hit his heart."

"You could have healed him!"

"And died with him?" I asked, finally turning my head to meet his furious stare. "I told you to fix it, Kael. You failed."

Kael stepped closer to the edge of the grave. The water plastered his dark hair to his forehead.

"The pack council wants you in chains," Kael threatened. "Julian is rallying the enforcers right now. They are searching the hospital, the packhouse, everywhere."

"Let them come." I wiped a streak of rainwater from my cheek. "I am right here."

"You don't care at all," Selene murmured from behind Kael, shivering violently. "You really are a monster. He was your mate."

"Go back to the car, Selene," I instructed. "Your shoes are ruining the grass."

"Don't speak to her like that," Kael warned.

"I'll speak to my husband's mistress however I please," I replied. "Or are we pretending you two weren't fucking in the VIP suite while he flatlined?"